Anglo-Saxon Poetry

( Widsith or Farway was probably composed in the seventh century, but
seems to have received later additions, such as the passage referring to the
Medes, Persians, and Hebrews. The poem is thus one of the oldest, if not
the oldest, in our language. It is the song of a wandering minstrel who tens
with pride of the rulers, the peoples, and the heroes he has known. Widsith
is not to be taken as the record of the actual travels of a real gleeman. A
minstrel who had been at the court of Eormanric who died A.D. 375 could not
have been in Italy with Ælfwine ( Alboin) who invaded Italy in 568. Widsith
is a record of the tribes and heroes of the age of the barbarian invasions of Italy, and its author was a man who loved the old stories of dead kings and
warriors. He gives a catalogue of heroic lore, the repertoire of stories which
an English minstrel of his day had at his command. For a full treatment of
the allusions in the poem, see R. W. Chambers Widsith ( Cambridge
University Press).]

WIDSITH spoke, unlocked his word-hoard, he who of men had
fared through most races and peoples over the earth; often he
had received in hall precious treasure. His ancestors sprang
from the Myrgings.1 He with Ealhhild, gracious weaver of
peace, first, from Angel in the east, sought the home of the
Gothic king Eormanric, the savage faithless one.2 He began
then to speak many things:

'I have heard of many men ruling over the peoples; every
prince must needs live fittingly; one earl after another must
rule the land, he who wishes his throne to prosper. Of these Hwala was for a time the best and Alexander mightiest of all the
race of men, and he prospered most of those of whom I have
heard tell throughout the earth. Ætla3 ruled the Huns, Eormanric the Goths, Becca4 the Banings, Gifica the Burgundians. Cæsar ruled the Greeks and Cælic the Finns, Hagena
the Island-Rugians and Heoden5 the Glommas. Witta ruled

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.